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The Faculty and Program Series Part Nine: The Arts and Sciences Program

BY DANIELLE LORENZ, MACINSIDERS

Introduction
The Arts and Sciences program at McMaster is relatively new, with the first cohort of students enrolling in 1981. As the first program of its kind in Canada, it was designed as a demanding program aimed at students who are capable of doing well in classes in the arts and sciences. This broad liberal arts education has the goals of providing substantial work in the disciplines of both arts and science; allowing students to further develop skills in writing, speaking, and critical reasoning; and fostering the art of scholarly inquiry into issues of public concern. Approximately sixty students are accepted into the program each year, making it the smallest faculty at McMaster.

Students take courses from within the Arts and Science program, as well as courses from the Humanities/Social Sciences and Science. Twenty percent of a student’s course load will be from Science, twenty percent will be from Humanities/Social Sciences, twenty-five to thirty percent will be interdisciplinary, and the remaining courses are electives. Students are usually registered in a combined Honours program in Arts and Sciences and another academic discipline within the Humanities, Sciences or Social Sciences. In their fourth year, students undertake a thesis project, which may be from any program at McMaster. A list of current thesis topics is available here.

Some Recent Awards:

• Patangi (Chari) Rangachari: winner of the 3M National Teaching Fellowships (2008)
• Miroslav Lovric:excellence in teaching from the Ontario government's Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (2007)
• Ken Blonde: OUA Men's Epee Individual Championship title for fencing (2007)
• Bob Henderson: Association for Experiential Education's (AEE) Michael Stratton Practitioner of the Year Award (2006)

Important Undergraduate Contacts:
Program Administrator: 905-525-9140 ext. 23153 [email protected]
Program Secretary: 905-525-9140 ext. 24655 [email protected]

Tips for Success:

• Participate in the Big Sibling mentoring program
• Talk to your professors and ask them for help when needed
• Check ELM often
• Use the SASS forums
• Keep up with your readings and assignments
• Utilize the Arts Sci GradNet

Undergraduate Social Events/Student Societies:
Society of Arts and Sciences Students (SASS) http://www.sassweb.ca/index.php is involved in Welcome Week activities, socials during the year, a “Big Sibling” mentoring program, Survival Series, and the Arts Sci publication, the Agora.

Notable Alumni Careers and Awards
Brenda Matthews: Researcher at University of California at Berkeley’s Astronomy department
Farah Mawani: Epidemilogist:Nationa l Coordinator for the New Canadian Children and Youth Study
Kat Kinch: UBC Law’s Best All-Around Graduate, one of Maclean’s "Best and the Brightest – Twenty-five faces for the Future" in 2004
Ying Ying Li: Yale Law graduate
Sacha Ghai: completed an M.B.A. at Harvard University

Career Options
Because of the interdisciplinary nature of the Arts Sci program, its students have the opportunity to pursue careers in a variety of fields. These include, but are not limited to:

• Graduate Studies
• Medicine
• Dentistry
• Law
• Journalism
• Naturopathy
• Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy
• Photography
• Social Work
• HR/PR
• Teaching
• International Development
• Library Science
• Resource Management
• Urban Planning
• Epidemiology
• Chiropractor
• Speech Language Pathologist